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When this blog series of 75 Questions began, there were 75 days before the grand start of New Year 2017, according to the Gregorian calendar. From that day forward, the destined countdown began and it continues. So, for the next four (4) days (Monday – Sunday) the blog postings will still ask you one question. Can you believe it!

Each question may inspire you, perplex you, anger you, or tickle you. The deliberate purpose of the question is to get you to your zone of awareness. Nothing more.

Soar

The instructional intent of the 75 questions is to probe, to prompt a reaction, to get you to stretch, to press beyond tradition or boundaries, to think broader, to break free, to find your position in the grand scheme of life. All that is asked is for you to give a thoughtful answer to the question.

It’s about the gravitas that is within you. You are your guide to help life go right. The arrow direction of which only you dominantly control. Awakened mindfulness, compassion, awareness, meditation of what is right and good, not just for self, but for mankind, that is the optimal quest.

The verall intent of the 75 questions is to capture change. The questions are to be a precursor for inner change that leaves you feeling more safe, in control, powerful, intrigued, and authentic..

When these primary emotions are opened up within you (they already exist), you change and your world changes and the whole world changes with you.

Power, Freedom and Grace by Deepak Chopra gives you the litany that reconditions your thinking and beliefs so that you can experience lasting happiness. He says, “By knowing who we are, we no longer interfere with joy.” The foundation of the book is to guide the reader to know themselves.

The book opens with three pivotal questions that push you to get in touch with who you are:

Who am I?

Where did I come from?

Where do I go when I die?

Who am I? – that’s the perpetual question of life. Somewhere, sometime or other we will ask this question. If you haven’t asked yourself this question yet, become conscious of that fact; there is a reason you haven’t allowed the question, much less the investigation of the question, to surface. Chopra makes the point in the book that unless the question is scoped deeply, it becomes a barrier to happiness. In other words, until you know who you are you are under the influence of hypnotic superstitious conditioning.

Where did I come from? – another age old inquiry. Chopra says every person originates from the same source of pure consciousness. He believes that a deep inculcation of pure consciousness offers the answer. Connection to the source unifies the body and mind with every vibration of nature’s rhythms. Thus, you disavow the superstition of separateness.

Where do I go when I die? – the latent probe of finality. This question pivots off of the previous two. Once you know who you are and your source, the fear of dying is satisfied. Chopra says,”pure consciousness cannot be destroyed…it is only transformed upon death.

Happiness for a reason is a form of misery-as that reason can change at any time. Chopra wisely offers no remedy to happiness for its own sake-“the key to lasting happiness is to identify with the unchanging essence of your inner self, your source” but instead prompts your own discovery with sage questions.

The answers you accept from your deepest self to this trilogy of questions become, according to Chopra, the key to happiness. The source of power, freedom and grace is the inner-true you.

You are fantastic! You make this world a better place by being stalwart and strong.

Honorable Cruz Reynoso

Cruz Reynoso is a fantastic human being. His fascinating life is being chronicled in a documentary, Sowing the Seeds of Justice. He is one of those rare individuals who are not only shaped by history, like other heroes has made an indelible make on history. This seminal documentary created by Abby Ginzberg, now showing on public broadcast stations, paints a portrait of Cruz Reynoso, a man who felt the sting of injustice as a child and later, as a lawyer, judge and teacher, fought for over five decades to eradicate discrimination and inequality for all.

Sowing the Seeds of Justice begins with Cruz Reynoso’s childhood where he was born into a Spanish-speaking farm worker family of eleven children. Sowing the Seeds of Justice tells about Justice Reynoso’s his struggle to be educated, leading to his graduation from Pomona College in 1953 and from UC Berkeley Law School in 1958. He then became the first Latino Director of California Rural Legal Assistance and later one of the first Latino law professors in the country beginning his academic career at the University of New Mexico Law School.

His ascent to the California Supreme Court was a singular achievement, when he was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown as the first Latino justice on that bench. Then in a heated recall campaign whose central issue was the death penalty, think Troy Davis and the state of Georgia, Reynoso and two other justices lost their seats. As Vice Chair on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, he provided leadership in the only investigation of voting rights abuses in the 2000 election in Florida. Mr. Reynoso has received the country’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for his lifelong devotion to public service and today at 78, he continues to teach law at UC Davis Law School and to actively participate in community organizations throughout the state of California.

“I think it’s good if you have a pattern of activity that works for you, and I’ve always felt that as long as God

provides a mind that works and a body that works, you’re better off being active.” ~Cruz Reynoso.

We all are champions. Cruz Reynoso is a champion whose legal advocacy makes Friday Fantastic.

Strength can only be developed by practice and effort. Emotional Exercise strengthens the mental power vital to success.

By now you have completed Emotional Exercise 1 and Emotional Exercise 2. Congratulations-you have undertaken two mental power components that strengthen your purpose vitality. It will be helpful, as we proceed to Emotional Exercise 3, to review both exercises again. Remind yourself of WHAT you want and WHY these wants are important/valuable to you. The emotional linkage of the two is vital to conquering doubt and fear. Reminder: re-reading or even re-doing either or both is perfectly fine. I have done this exercise three times already and tested it twice out on a diverse population sample in advance of posting it to you. Repetition is good, practice and effort strengthens.

Emotional Exercise 3:

Take a look at the ten things listed in the column below: Write ALL ten down on a separate piece of paper.

Job and money

religion/spirituality

good health

friends

family

independence/ability to make your own decisions

self-respect

being a loving person/being loved

freedom

good life/social parties/entertainment

Now, take away four of those from the list above. Just cross them out on your sheet of paper.

Next, take away four more. Cross out four more from the list.

Take away ONE more from the list.

STOP and look at the one thing you have left from the list. Really pause and see the word you have kept from your list. This word is what you value and hold most precious. This is your ONE THING that is sacred, soul-touching, most valuable to you in the present.

Write the ONE THING you have left on a separate piece of paper or page in your journal. This is important because that ONE THING is your mental governor, the thing that you will do anything to protect and hold secure in your life.

Ask yourself – write down the answer here – am I making decisions and living the life that proves that this ONE THING is my lifeline, my purpose? Am I living on purpose – protecting what I MOST value right now?

I know this part of Emotional Exercise 3 is difficult, hard to use an inner scope of thought to see and feel the ONE thing that you value and then probe into how you are living to protect that ONE thing. But, strength only comes with practice and effort. Take the effort of clearly comprehend this ONE point of your POWER and TRIUMPH. Once you inculcate this, you become a strong fortress. Don’t hold back-make the effort. Identify what you are doing, or not doing, to strengthen your ONE THING. Write it all down, study this question over and over again. Over and over again, probe and study this question until it becomes a legitimate, honest true concentration of who you are; until it becomes an unarguable purpose that is only for you and only made for you and can only be done by you.

This is heavy stuff, but your mental freedom depends on the effort and practice of cleaning up the dross and defining in clear detail the ONE THING for you.

Place your ONE THING everywhere. In the bath mirror, on exit doors, in your wallet, on the desk, in a photo frame, as wallpaper on your computer, in OneNote; see it often.

We will continue with Emotional Exercise 4 later in the week. For now, do Exercise 3 with fortitude and grace; see and concentrate on your purposed ONE THING.

Thank you for the trust and work you have done in Emotional Exercise 3 and for the tolerance you have exhibited to get you here. Know your ONE THING or work harder and with purposeful effort to get to know your one thing. Once this is crystallized and deeply ingested, you are on the precipice of lasting change.